guinaldo's government
and the American authorities.

"'In arriving at this decision we have been actuated by the desire
to gain time for our arsenals to produce sufficient cartridges, if,
as would seem to be probable, they persist in not even recognizing
our belligerency, as means for furthering the recognition of our
independence.'" [446]

Arguelles, on his return, was instructed to ask Otis for a--

"general armistice and suspension of hostilities in all the archipelago
for the short space of three months, in order to enable it to consult
the opinion of the people concerning the government which would be the
most advantageous, and the intervention in it which should be given
to the North American Government, and to appoint an extraordinary
commission with full powers, to act in the name of the Philippine
people." [447]

General Otis naturally again declined to grant the request for a
suspension of hostilities.

Little came of the conference between Arguelles and the commission,
except that we really succeeded in convincing him of the good
intentions of our government, and this promptly got him into very
serious trouble, as we shall soon see. I took him to a tent hospital
on the First Reserve Hospital grounds where wounded Insurgents were
receiving the best of treatment at the hands of American surgeons,
and he was amazed. He had been taught to believe that the Americans
murdered prisoners, raped women, and committed similar barbarities
whenever they got a chance. As we have seen, stories of this sort
were industriously spread by many of the Insurgent leaders among
their soldiers, and among the common people as well. They served
to arouse the passions of the former, and stirred them up to acts
of devilish brutality which they might perhaps not otherwise have
perpetrated. Arguelles told the truth upon his return, and this,
together with his suggestion that it might be well to consider the
acceptance of the form of government offered by the United States,
nearly cost him his life. Relative to this matter Taylor says:--

"When Arguelles returned to the insurgent lines, it must have been
considered that he had said too much in Manila. While he had been
sent there to persuade the Americans to agree to a suspension of
hostilities to be consumed in endless discussion under cover of which
Luna's army could be reorganized, he had not only failed to secure
the desired armistice, but had come back with the opinion that it